National News Archives - Vanyaland https://vanyaland.com/category/music/national-news/ The proven voice in music since 2013 Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:18:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://redefined.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/31135224/cropped-V-SOCIAL-2023-32x32.png National News Archives - Vanyaland https://vanyaland.com/category/music/national-news/ 32 32 Charlotte Sands stirs up an alt-pop storm with ‘one eye open’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/12/04/charlotte-sands-stirs-up-an-alt-pop-storm-with-one-eye-open/ Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:17:29 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042738 Charlotte Sands‘ brand of empower-pop has gotten more brash and bold with each new release. The alt-pop firestorm and Hopkinton native has sharpened her sound through a string of emphatic singles over the past several months, all leading to the release of new album Satellite in March. Now, Sands delivers “one eye open”, a searing new banger that further blurs the lines between pop and metal while providing a compass towards personal preservation — something we all need as we […]

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]]> AE MAK crafts a celestial art-pop lullaby in ‘We Came From Stars’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/12/03/ae-mak-crafts-a-celestial-art-pop-lullaby-in-we-came-from-stars/ Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:29:40 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042725 There are very few safe spaces left in this world, but the warm and inviting voice of AE MAK feels like one of them. The Irish alt-pop artist last week delivered a celestial new cosmic folk single in “We Came From Stars,” a minimalist twirl of expansive intimacy where her luminous vocals act as physical expression, drawing us in as the main instrument to convey reflection and rediscovery. “I’ve taken a step back from electronic world-building for now,” the artist born Aoife McCann […]

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]]> Artemas knows that ‘you and i could never be friends’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/12/02/artemas-knows-that-you-and-i-could-never-be-friends/ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 12:02:07 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042716 It feels like a decade ago at this point, but it was around this time last year when we were slotting Artemas‘ unfuckwithable alt-pop bop “i like the way you kiss me” into our Year in ReView column hyping 2024’s best tracks. A lot has happened in the time since, including the release of the English songwriter’s stream-horny mixtape LOVERCORE, but we fast-forward past all that and into the uneven now with a new tune called “you and i could […]

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]]> Lonely Little Kitsch smash a collective tension with ‘Puncture Wounds’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/12/01/lonely-little-kitsch-smash-a-collective-tension-with-puncture-wounds/ Mon, 01 Dec 2025 11:33:45 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042689 It’s wild that the smash rooms aren’t booming with business these days. Everyone’s on edge, forever ready to throw hands, and one minor inconvenience thrusts otherwise chill folx into a blind rage. But a controlled and coordinated release of the tension that grips us is quite necessary to get through this cursed timeline, and Lonely Little Kitsch have released a sensational soundtrack to help address frustrations in ways that won’t get us arrested. The Canadian duo of Kristen Goetz and […]

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]]> HIGHDRIVE scoff at societal apathy with the fevered ‘Cherry’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/19/highdrive-scoff-at-societal-apathy-with-the-fevered-cherry/ Wed, 19 Nov 2025 10:42:31 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042686 When life overwhelms, sometimes we need a song that pushes back with the same kind of intensity. Enter HIGHDRIVE, a fresh English band outta Brighton that arrive armed with perhaps the most consuming and encompassing guitar tone we’ve heard in a hot minute, unravelling a fervid new tune called “Cherry” that is as comforting as it is pummeling. The root inspo for the track is the decaying world around us, and the fivesome channel the despair we feel from the […]

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]]> Glixen stir the internal ache of shoegaze with ‘Medicine Bow’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/18/glixen-stir-the-internal-ache-of-shoegaze-with-medicine-bow/ Tue, 18 Nov 2025 09:55:15 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042679 When the 2026 Something In The Way Fest lineup dropped a few weeks ago, we were stoked to see Glixen in the mix alongside Sunny Day Real Estate, Explosions in the Sky, Momma, and others. When the festival returns to Roadrunner in Brighton this winter, the Phoenix shoegaze band should deliver a hefty dose of sonic warmth, and that feeling is fueled by weighty new single “Medicine Bow.” The track hit the streams this past Friday (November 14), and the […]

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]]> Grade 2 power forward in an unforgiving world with ‘Cut Throat’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/12/grade-2-power-forward-in-an-unforgiving-world-with-cut-throat/ Wed, 12 Nov 2025 20:43:14 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042644 Being dependable isn’t really punk as fuck, but Grade 2 never seem to care about any of that shit. All the British band does is bang out street punk ripper after street punk ripper, taking the classic sound of their shore’s genre strain and filtering it through a piss n’ vitriol lens for the modern day. The trio’s 2023 self-titled record should hold firm as one of the decade’s finest and furious long-players, and we’ve entered the realm where anything […]

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]]> City Builders dials 666 for a rowdy alt-pop all-nighter in ‘No Sleep’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/10/city-builders-dials-666-for-a-rowdy-alt-pop-all-nighter-in-no-sleep/ Mon, 10 Nov 2025 10:03:59 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042629 In this yawning 2025, nothing feels fun. City Builders is sick of that shit. The alt-pop project from Toronto artist Grace Turner drops an electro beat on the kind of all-night revelry we used to have with “No Sleep,” a rowdy banger that throbs with euphoria as the walls of chaos close in around us. It’s a pulsating soundtrack for wild nights, reckless fun, and a sense of unhinged liberation we all seemed to have lost along the way to […]

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]]> Scarlet Nicole transmutes pain into power with the pulsating ‘Poison’ https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/05/scarlet-nicole-transmutes-pain-into-power-with-the-pulsating-poison/ Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:40:42 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042605 Scarlet Nicole isn’t afraid of casting a musical spell to defend her sense of self. The Florida-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter draws us into her shadow world with the haunting “Poison,” a Halloween day release that throbs with a dark electronic intensity and hypnotism fit for any day of the year. A heavy-beat yearner that transforms betrayal into empowerment, “Poison” is a cautionary tale for the modern world; a hymn for the wounded, the wild, and the reborn; and a call-to-power […]

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]]> 617 Q&A: Colin Hay forever remains a storyteller at work https://vanyaland.com/2025/11/04/617-qa-colin-hay-forever-remains-a-storyteller-at-work/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 19:50:49 +0000 https://vanyaland.com/?p=10042598 One of the biggest acts of the initial MTV era, along with Duran Duran, Talking Heads, The Stray Cats, and Pat Benatar, was Men at Work. Led by the Scottish-born Colin Hay, the Australian exports were known for a series of video clips that aired around the clock, filled with peculiar imagery to match the equally idiosyncratic songs. It was almost like an introduction to another culture, “where women glow and men plunder,” as detailed in the chart-topping hit “Down […]

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